What happened to the volume

It looks like NYSE total volume is still low, and far lower than this year's average or even 2008 or 2007 averages. Today it traded 1.2 billion, but less than 1 billion with 10 min left so I figure the tape must have been painted with some heft after-hours orders.

Where did this volume go? Did it go to other exchanges or has buying interest really dropped by ~20%?

a lot of the recent volme was bred by higher leverage ratios- with those coming down across the entire industry, trading was bound to suffer- not to mention any funds that went belly up and/or had huge redemptions. the treasuries have also come down a lot in volume this year relative to last, so the money isn't hiding there.